Osf St. Elizabeth Hospital issued the following announcement on July 26.

OSF HealthCare St. Francis Hospital & Medical Group is requesting help from the local community to determine and prioritize health needs. A survey is now available, and residents can participate by filling it out at osfstfrancis.org and clicking on the ‘Take Our Survey’ banner or by picking up a paper copy at the Northern Lights YMCA in Escanaba or at the Escanaba St. Vincent de Paul, beginning August 1.

“Every community has different health care needs,” said Dave Lord, President of OSF St. Francis Hospital. “Through this survey, we hope to get input from a broad set of community members to help us focus our efforts on the challenges and opportunities unique to Escanaba and its surrounding areas.”

OSF HealthCare hospitals conduct community health needs assessments every three years and put together plans to meet the community needs that the assessments identify. After data is collected and each community's health needs are prioritized by greatest need, administrative and caregiver teams at OSF HealthCare work together to further support current community-based health programs and services, as well as starting new programs to help meet the needs for each community.

“Our last survey identified behavioral health as one of the greatest opportunities for improvement in our community,” said Lord “We took feedback from the survey and through a collaborative approach were able to provide free educational seminars regarding mental health concerns in the community and implemented the use of SilverCloud, a secure app designed to provide easy and immediate access to behavioral therapy programs. We have also worked diligently to bring more behavioral health services to our Medical Group and are in the process of adding a Licensed Master Social worker to our Family Medicine practices to better serve the needs of our patients and community.”

The survey affecting OSF St. Francis Hospital will be available until August 31. For more information, visit osfstfrancis.org or contact Joy Hopkins, MSN at 906-786-5707 ext. 5500.